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Solar Impulse Completes First Intercontinental Solar Flight

Posted by Soulskill on from the always-land-before-dark dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Slashdotters may remember the Solar Impulse — the world's first 100% solar-powered airplane — from last year when it made its public debut. Today the airplane made news again as it successfully completed the world's first solar-powered intercontinental flight — a pivotal step that paves the way for the plane's first trip around the world in 2014."

4 of 56 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Not really that spectacular... by MyLongNickName · · Score: 4, Insightful

    515 miles isn't impressive for a solar powered flight? Maybe I am naive, but this seems like quite an accomplishment to me. Perhaps you would like to pull something out of your resume that is more impressive?

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  2. At about 25 miles/hour by kwerle · · Score: 3, Insightful

    piloted their Solar Impulse airplane over 515 miles to their destination in Rabat, Morocco... Furthermore, after almost 20 hours of flight

  3. The First Always Kinda Sucks, Give It A Break by TheSpoom · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The first car sucked. The first bicycle sucked. It's a goddamn proof of concept, people. Stop shit-talking it, this is how progress is made.

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  4. Cool but... by TheSkepticalOptimist · · Score: 1, Insightful

    So all the people seeing this as progress, realize that in 30+ years solar panels have not improved significantly enough to be able to generate the kind of power required to move 2 people, let alone 100 or 300.

    This is a nice novelty, but does not harken a new era in solar power flight until there is some fundamental improvements in solar power technology.

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